'BENZ Gaggenau, Baden' in 1916

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It’s hard to overestimate the impact the First World War had on the modern world. The four-year conflict shaped borders, destroyed and created empires, and completely changed the very definition of war and how it is fought. That impact, of course, extended to the vehicles used by each nation desperate for any advantage needed to come away victorious.

The cars, tanks, planes, boats, and even zeppelins that went into battle shaped the war, but the war shaped them as well, accelerating innovation and providing a hellish testing ground. To mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the fighting, we took at some of those vehicles, how they were designed, what they were used for, and how they transitioned back to civilian life in 1918.